Conquest Chronicles Teaches Us About The Concussion

Certainly, the Cal fans' interest in concussions has risen quite considerably since Saturday. After the horrific injury to Jahvid Best, there was a lot of rumor going around about what had happened to him. It is definitely known that he suffered a concussion, his second in a short period of time. But what is a concussion? What are its effects? And what is the effect of getting 2 in such a short period of time? Paragon SC, who apparently plays a doctor on TV, has written this in depth analysis about concussions, which is pertinent. (link in title) He has a lot of other medical analyses, found on the left sidebar of Conquest Chronicles.

over 2 years ago TwistNHook 15 comments 0 recs |

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It bothers me how teams identify players as having “mild” or “minor” concussions without reporting whatever “grade” it was given by medical staff. I mean, if it’s as straight forward as Paragon SC’s write up states, it’s possible that players like Best and Tebow should be sitting out post-concussion much longer. I believe we even had a guy who had a concussion last week that was active this week… anyway, erring on the side of safety and long term health really needs to be the next step.

by ArbyOSU on Nov 9, 2009 12:07 PM PST reply actions

I agree. If Best’s first concussion was Grade 1 then the whole “Why did Urban Meyer get criticized and not Tedford?” argument can go away. (Apparently, Tebow’s concussion was the first concussion in football history.) Tebow clearly had a grade 2 or maybe even 3 concussion.

by Tedfordisgod on Nov 9, 2009 12:29 PM PST up reply actions

I think a lot of people are finally seeing that it’s not a toughness issue, it’s a long term health issue that goes beyond a player’s football career. Tebow, Best or whoever need to have coaches, administrators and health care professionals telling them to take a seat and get healthy.

I wouldn’t demonize Tedford over this one. He sat him for the week and he probably did check out before the game. It’s possible that the minimum standards to activate a player post-concussion are too low, i.e. not Tedford’s fault.

Who knows though—if they actually called offensive PI the play before and Best doesn’t take any crazy leaps, does he even get a concussion at all? It was a freak incident/perfect storm. It’s possible that guys play like that all the time and unless they’re dropped on their back/head from six or seven feet in the air they finish the game without incident. I wish that’s the last time I see something like that on the football field…

by ArbyOSU on Nov 9, 2009 12:35 PM PST up reply actions

Yeah, obviously, if Best prior concussion was serious, he shouldn’t have been playing. But on the other hand, I can’t fathom a scenario in which the fall on Saturday night wouldn’t result in a terrible concussion.

by Tedfordisgod on Nov 9, 2009 1:49 PM PST up reply actions

True. I’ve heard people calculating that he was up nine feet in the air. That’s a bad fall for anyone, especially a dude just getting over a concussion.

by ArbyOSU on Nov 9, 2009 2:27 PM PST up reply actions

I think that one of the problems is that the medical community still hasn’t established any firm ways to determine when someone is exactly ready to play. This problem is made even worse by what I think is just a general lack of preparation. I wouldn’t be too surprised if none of the college football programs in nation even have baseline cognitive scores for their players with which they compare if any of their players ever suffer a concussion.

by Mister Pie on Nov 9, 2009 4:31 PM PST reply actions

My post was just contradicted by someone who probably knows a lot more about the state of sports medicine than I do. Check out the post below and ignore this one!

by Mister Pie on Nov 9, 2009 4:35 PM PST up reply actions

Coming back from a concussion

Haven’t seen all the comments on this, but it seems that some implied that determining when Jahvid (or any player for that matter) returns from a concussion is a discretionary decision, and that somehow the coaching or training staffs exercised poor discretion in allowing Jahvid to play last week. It is not a discretionary call, so to point fingers at the staff seems a bit misguided.

Football players can return to the field once they reach a given score on a computer exam designed to test various neurological functions (most schools use the ImPACT test). Before the season begins, each player takes an ImPACT diagnostic to get a baseline score. The test is actually kind of fun: a lot of little brain teasers, memory questions, color and word identifiers. There are 5 different parts, each designed to test a different neurological/cognitive function. The test has about 50 or 60 questions and takes about an hour to finish. At the end, each player gets a numerical score (kind of like the GRE exam). After a player suffers a concussion, he cannot return to the field until he gets a score reasonably close to his baseline. So, there is a readily-available objective and pre-determined standard the staff will presumably use in determining when/if Jahvid plays again this season. This test became a widely-used only in the middle part of the 2000s; I’m not sure if Cal uses it but it’d be surprising if they didn’t.

by calbeers05753 on Nov 9, 2009 4:33 PM PST reply actions 2 recs

Interesting. I do remember hearing people discuss baseline test scores and all of that but didn’t know much else.

by ArbyOSU on Nov 9, 2009 4:41 PM PST up reply actions

Whoa, interesting. Wonder why that isn’t much widely known.

by Tedfordisgod on Nov 9, 2009 4:45 PM PST up reply actions

Rec’d for helping me learn.

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by TwistNHook on Nov 9, 2009 4:51 PM PST up reply actions

doesn’t that seem extremely cack handed to anyone else? I thought the whole problem with concussions is that they are so medically mysterious. How can a simple test, which seems to measure basic cognitive function between two periods be used to determine overall brain health, especially long term, and considering that a shock to a shocked system only increases the risk? If I get a 1400 on my SAT and then a 1200 two months later, does that mean I was concussed?

I’d like to see way, way more stringent guidelines for a return put in place. Grade 1 concussion? Out for one month. Grade 2? Out for 2 months. Grade 3? MINIMUM six months, period.

The Lack of Mack's Imposition Attacks My Disposition.

by Spazzy Mcgee on Nov 9, 2009 5:02 PM PST up reply actions

You’re correct, it’s a threshold. Players won’t play immediately once they pass the test, but they can’t play until they pass the test. The medical staff presumably looks at a lot of other things, specifically how his back and neck are doing. Just wanted to point out that it’s not a huge mystery, and there are objective criteria out there that prevent a player from going back onto the field as soon as he says he doesn’t have headaches anymore

by calbeers05753 on Nov 9, 2009 5:19 PM PST up reply actions

I see.

The Lack of Mack's Imposition Attacks My Disposition.

by Spazzy Mcgee on Nov 9, 2009 5:34 PM PST up reply actions

You’re right. It’s just a test. It’s a new thing. Concussions and their effects are a recent thing people are just starting to realize. It’s incredibly hard to diagnose and the test isn’t a sure way of testing, but it’s just something that’s helping doctors diagnose a concussion’s severity and allowing some kind of baseline of when a player is deemed medically ‘ok’ to go back on the field (and from what I remember, it wasn’t just on score but on reaction time as well on very simple cognitive questions).

Does it mean they’re completely fine even if they can ace the test? Probably not. But it’s a method being used to prevent coaches and teams to just let a player get back on the field because everyone thinks they look fine. It’s more of a barrier to prevent the players from being allowed to take the field until they can pass the test, telling the coach/staff/team that no, a player can’t play until they pass the test, doctor’s orders.

HBO Real Sports (w/ Bryant Gumble) had a really good (and now relevant) piece on this that aired only a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a youtube link or anything.

by nickle on Nov 9, 2009 5:15 PM PST reply actions

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